Trinity (6 page)

Neela practically stumbled from the pool in her urgency to get on with it. Aleena held up a gauzy garment made of transparent purple cloth that draped from shoulder to cunt. The deep vee allowed for nipples and the outsides of her breasts to be covered. Otherwise, she was bare. Aleena meticulously dried her hair and turned her to face Tarrel.

His black garment started low across his hips, tented over his full erection and dropped just below his balls. She could see through his wrap as easily as he could see through hers. And he looked. But then so did she.

She fixated on his heavy cock. Her pussy wept to have him inside her, but she wouldn’t. Not yet.

Tarrel and Neela were led into the royal chambers.

Thrax hadn’t changed. Other than the cloak and sandals that he’d discarded, he still wore the hip-drape of tanned leather, and the amulet of his office. His gaze raked over her.

“This suits you far better than your Elaran military uniform,” he murmured appreciatively.

He closed the distance. Thrax cupped her breast. Neela moaned, leaning into his touch as her eyes closed. This is what she wanted. How much longer did she need to wait until he took her to his bed?

“Now, please, my King,” she whispered brokenly.

Chapter Four

Her words washed over the king, leaving behind goose bumps in their wake. He’d wanted to hear those words since the first time he’d seen her three years back. He’d never imagined she’d say them. He’d never imagined that his half-tossed comment that he’d only trade ore with the Elarans for her body would be taken seriously. Or delivered upon.

He was a man of his word though. He’d follow through. Even if she changed her mind, despite what he’d said earlier. First, he needed to know her true desires about what would happen here. He didn’t want an obedient puppet in his bed. He wanted Neela. Strong, belligerent, self-contained Neela whose dark eyes and darker hair had plagued his dreams and his fantasies.

“Neela,” he began quietly. “I’ll trade with your government. They can make an offer for my ore. You’re free to go.”

She looked at him with confused eyes.

“I want you.” He moved closer, speaking into her upturned face. “I want you like no other woman I’ve known. But I want
you
, not your obedience.”

“You have me,” she answered.

He forsook her breast to stroke a tender thumb across her full bottom lip. “I only want you if you also want me. Think about what I’m saying, Neela. Think carefully. Do you want me because the woman in you desires me, or do you want me only to fulfill a struck bargain?”

Breath parted her lips as she studied his eyes. Slowly, she smiled. “I want you because I’m a woman who’s attracted to a man.”

He knew it was the truth simply by virtue of the drug she’d taken. It wasn’t enough of a confirmation. “And the Elaran agreement? Would you be standing her before me, naked and willing, if it didn’t exist?”

“I wouldn’t because I’d never have come alone without it. It brought me to this circumstance and this moment. I wouldn’t have been granted access to you otherwise.”

“You know what I’m asking,” he redirected her.

“I know,” she agreed. “If I were standing before you in a uniform and as myself, I’d still desire you. I wouldn’t give into the temptation because it’s not my way. But I’d want to. I’d want to very much.”

“Thank you,” he said, dropping a kiss on her forehead. He stroked her neck with the backs of his fingers. “I want to lie with you. Alone. If you allow it, I’d enjoy sharing you with Tarrel later. Is that acceptable to you?”

Neela licked her lips. “I want you to share me with him.”

Thrax smiled. “Then I will. I won’t share myself with him, but I’ll enjoy watching him fuck you while you beg for more.”

Neela’s breath caught.

He reached beneath her garment, cupping her pussy and slid a finger deep inside her. Neela bit back a moan as she rocked her hips to meet his hand.

“Wet,” he said, pleased. “I have a gift for you.”

Thrax turned to leave. Neela’s hand curled around his upper arm. Her brow drew together uncertainly. “My king, you said the ore is agreed to regardless of what happens between us.”

“I did. Call me Thrax instead of king. In my bedchamber, we are equals.” She still seemed uncertain. “Are you afraid?”

“No, but sex isn’t the same. I feel—stripped.”

He smiled and took her hand, leading her to a table off to the side. It had an injection pump on it. “This pump spray has the antidote to the inhibitor you took. I’d like to give it to you, if you’ll let me.”

Her gaze shot to his. “You’d allow that?”

“Why wouldn’t I? Neela Pharr attracted me to her. I want to know what you’re feeling. I want to share them with you, but not if being intimate makes you uncomfortable. I’m no threat to you. If you need your emotions curbed, then I’ll give you the option to do so.”

She stared at him in disbelief. He’d give up the right to know her mind? It was a gift she hadn’t expected. It meant she had her full control back if she took it. It meant no more tears unless she released the iron grip she kept on herself.

She glanced back at Tarrel who had remained standing in silence for the duration of their arrival in the king’s chamber. He seemed as taken aback as she was. He lifted an eyebrow, an expression she often saw from him when he was waiting for her next move.

“No,” she said after a moment. She lifted her gaze boldly to his. “I want to feel everything without restriction. I need to know what this is before I discard the opportunity.”

“So this is a personal awakening for you,” he said rather than asked.

“It’s a battle with myself I’ve never had to wage. Sexuality, lust, focus and reserve are on different sides of the spectrum. I’ve never understood the human, or the Prillian way to feel everything to the point of distraction.”

“Feeling isn’t a war or a price,” Tarrel said behind her. “It’s an extension of the actual experience that fills out the details into something memorable. Like us, on the skiff.”

Thrax laughed. “Tarrel, if you’re trying to make me jealous, you’ll fail. I’m fully aware that a grown woman will have many partners in her life cycle. You and I are only two.”

“I want to be the last,” Tarrel told them.

Thrax’s smile faded. “That’s becoming my equal hope.”

She looked between the two men as their words sank in. She wanted them both. She was attracted to both. She’d never considered a permanent life with any man, but then her kind didn’t generally believe in monogamy. That was an emotional reaction to family that the Elarans didn’t share with other alien species. Yet as these two men shared their thoughts on the subject, she realized that it didn’t scare her or disgust her. It appealed on a level she’d never anticipated.

She’d enjoyed sex with Tarrel. A lot, actually. She wanted to have it again and she wanted to see the look in his eyes when he came inside her and showered her with kisses she knew to be emotionally delivered. She wanted the same from Thrax.

Could both men love her? Continuously? Was there a reason to pick one man over the other? Would they allow her to have both men?

She mentally shook herself. As yet, that hadn’t been offered. She’d gotten too far ahead of herself. What’s to say that after these few days the men would even
want
more of her? The king had access to any number of women in and outside his realm. He had political attachments and reasons to see those attachments through. Tarrel, too, was a favorite among the women. He was a novelty for Elaran women who wanted to have a man make love to them and lose himself in their bodies like no Elaran man would. Humans wanted him too. As men went, he was a fine specimen in every way.

Neela didn’t want to share either of them. Today they were hers. “I’ll take the antidote before I leave. First, I want to know everything.”

Neela dropped a hand on his bare chest. It trembled slightly as though she weren’t sure of her decision, or was second-guessing it. She didn’t have doubts.

Thrax slid his large hands down her arms to her wrist without breaking eye contact. He seemed to be waiting for her to change her mind. A surge of gratitude tightened her chest with emotion. She’d never questioned her bravery. She’d always looked passed her fear, but her body wasn’t familiar to her at the moment. It wasn’t behaving the way it had always done. Looking into Thrax’s clear green eyes gave her the anchor she needed.

She’d trust him. And she’d trust Tarrel.

“Take her waist,” Thrax told Tarrel.

Tarrel’s fingers clasped her loosely. He moved in close behind. The heat from his body was as much a support as his hands were. She wondered if he knew that she needed him there, as close as possible, in order to trust herself.

Tarrel’s chest brushed her back, and her shoulders relaxed. Nothing in the way he stood felt like he was on guard, which eased her conscience further. Thrax lifted her wrists and clasped them behind Tarrel’s neck. She sank her fingers into his short hair and rested against him as Thrax’s regard drifted over her exposed body.

She affected the king. His eyes had dilated and Thrax’s lips had parted as though breathing through his nose was no longer sufficient. She shifted, watching him watch her. When she opened her legs, his breath rasped heavily. Not quite a sigh, or a gasp, or a grunt, but all three conjoined in a timeless utterance of hunger.

The king untied his draping, and the cloth fell away. Neela bit the inside of her cheek. Where Tarrel’s cock had been generous in length, Thrax’s was full and smooth as it filled.

He reached for the deep vee of her covering and roughly ripped it down the center. She gasped, but held to Tarrel. In this position, her breasts pushed up and out. Tarrel groaned and leaned in to nibble her ear. She turned her head to the side, feeling every pull of his lips track answering tugs in her pussy.

Thrax took one of Tarrel’s hands and pushed it under Neela’s breast. He tapped the tip of his own finger on her nipple, jolting her with sensation she didn’t know how to categorize. Thrax leaned down and claimed her lips with a savage kiss.

She arched to reach him, wanting to hold him closer, but enjoying the position Thrax had put her in, as it heightened her urgency to do more, have more, yet denied her the pleasure of taking it.

Thrax plundered her mouth, suckling her tongue and lips with the gentle edge of his teeth. It left her gasping and wet, and he seemed to know exactly how kissing him had affected her.

Already aroused from the hands-on bath, the subsiding ache began its dull, pounding return. She heard herself whimper almost as though it were some other pathetic woman, not a battle-wise warrior.

But the hidden world of her mind was no longer her own. By choice, she’d made it available for sharing. Perhaps she’d think it a mistake when she came back to herself, but at the moment, her own soft sighs and eager sounds were a revelation of desire. She craved the invasion of these men upon her body.

“Touch me,” she pleaded.

Her body ached for hands to move on her. Yet Tarrel hadn’t changed his position, and Thrax’s rough kiss had grown soft, plying her lips and wakening secret tender parts of her body and mind she didn’t know she had.

Neela tried to curl her leg around Thrax’s waist to encourage him closer, but he held his ground. She wanted to feel the hot prod of his cock against her folds, feel his hands clasp her breasts. Why wouldn’t he begin?

“This is madness,” she rasped. “Why don’t you touch me?”

Thrax’s low chuckle spilled across her ear as he kissed the shell. “And rush your experience? I think not. Delaying the inevitable heightens your pleasure, my love. I must insist that you never forget what happens between us here.”

“I won’t forget. How could I?”

“I’ll see to it all the same,” he murmured.

His hot breath sent shivers over her body. Her nipples tightened almost painfully. The dull throb between her legs became a building sting as need filled her pussy and found no release. She squeezed her thighs together, but Thrax kicked them apart. “Tell me, little dove. Do Elaran men adequately torment your body before sex?” Thrax asked.

Had he entered her mind when he said he wouldn’t? She’d been on a similar line of thought just now. “Elarans do what is necessary to reach satisfaction. They do it well and quickly,” she said a bit defensively.

“As with anything, I’m sure. Elarans are efficient and well trained in every activity.”

Thrax finally touched her, his hand sliding over her drenched pussy. Her eyes nearly rolled back in her head when his light touch didn’t come close to satisfying what she truly wanted from him.

“There’s something to be said for clumsy and inefficient,” he teased. “Or so your body would lead me to believe.”

The king nipped her neck. He moved Tarrel’s free hand to cup her other breast as Thrax bent to flick his tongue over the needy buds.

“Touch her,” he told Tarrel. “Fondle her. I want her much wetter than she thinks is
necessary
. Keep your legs open, Neela. Don’t deny me.”